Some thoughts on the stories of our lives.

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Making Hay

Grace’s two brothers were masters of making something useful out of nothing. I got to know Henry quite well, as they lived in the next county over. To his dying day, Henry’s shop was home to some incredible projects made from other peoples’ cast-offs. Apparently, the tradition started early. There’s a lot more to say about Henry in future posts.

Grace writes:

Hi Everyone,

Driving thru N D today, August 29, 1992 brings up memories of Henry & Melvin making hay for the cows. They used old car chassis to make jitneys to pull the hay rakes with. They also used them with the hay buckets to push the hay into piles and load the truck with. I think they mowed with the tractor. One year we got a nice new red Farmall tractor. One time when they were mowing in a meadow there was a lots of flame lilies growing + of course got mowed down so Mel brought home a couple buckets full.

One other time he caught a bunch of big frogs that he brought home + Momma fried the legs. First + last time I guess I’ll ever have frog legs. They were good, too!

It was sometime in those years that I became good friends with Donnie Burman. Went riding a couple times with him and then that summer he asked me to go to Lake Williams with him + for some reason I didn’t. He + two other guys were boating + the boat flipped + he was drowned. They found his body caught under a ledge where the undertow took him.